AIG uses ad campaign to thank taxpayers for bailout

American International Group is launching an ad campaign that will air during post-season football games, awards shows and morning news programs and thanks taxpayers for coming to the insurer’s rescue during the financial crisis.

The “Thank You America” campaign will highlight AIG’s recovery and the repayment of the federal government’s bailout, which at its peak in 2009 consisted of a $182.3 billion commitment from the Treasury and the Federal Reserve.

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“We thank America for allowing us to insure a brighter future and to bring on tomorrow,” AIG president and chief executive Robert Benmosche said in a statement Monday.

The campaign follows Treasury’s announcement earlier this month that it sold its final shares of AIG. The ads will highlight the calculation that the government made a $22.7 billion profit on the bailout.

The two-week ad campaign begins Tuesday and will appear on major television, print and online outlets.

AIG declined to disclose the price of the ad blitz but said ads will run during NFL playoff and NCAA bowl games, national network morning shows, primetime television including The Golden Globes, on “homepage takeovers” of nytimes.com and Yahoo!, as well as through social media and YouTube.

The company said the campaign will feature AIG employees from around the country “telling AIG’s story and sharing their pride in the company.” AIG said the ads will also emphasize its role in rebuilding following disasters, including at the new World Trade Center and after Hurricane Sandy.

AIG was on the brink of collapse in 2008 after facing a massive liquidity crisis because of credit default swaps tied to mortgage-backed securities.

In addition to the bailout, the federal government responded with sweeping financial regulatory reforms through the 2010 Dodd-Frank law that continue to be implemented. Under that law, the firm is expected to be named as a “systemically significant financial institution,” subjecting it to more government oversight.

Benmosche, who became head of the company in 2009, has said AIG is beginning its “second act.”

"It marks one of the most extraordinary — and what many believed to be most unlikely — turnarounds in American business history," Benmosche said in a Dec. 11 memo to employees when Treasury announced the final share sale. "And you did it."

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 11:03 a.m. on December 31, 2012.